The beauty of everyday history

The Archives Center supports the mission of the National Museum of American History by preserving and providing access to documentary evidence of America’s past. With more than 1,000 collections, the Center contains paper-based textual records, photographs, motion picture films, videotapes, and sound recordings.

Here’s what Archives Center intern Kiley Orchard had to say about a project that, for her, is truly bringing history to life.

Reason #82 I love my job: Today I continued my work processing a collection of Revlon advertisements (print and television) from 1936-1986. It’s really cool to see how ideas about beauty changed throughout the decades. Even though I would hardly call myself a fashionista (although my co-workers and I do love to discuss “Project Runway”), I actually recognize quite a few of the models since I watch “America’s Next Top Model.” It reminds me of how the museum’s collections really relate not only to the social history of the past but today’s popular culture. My friends at home were pretty jealous when I told them what I was doing!

I was standing in line at CVS the other day and saw a brand of Revlon fragrance. I would never have noticed had I not just processed Revlon’s promotional material from years before. It’s funny how often I see things now that relate to the work being done in the Archives Center.

Comments

[crystal]

I am studying to be a cosmetologist and find this article very interesting. It would be amazing to discover when women first started caring for their looks and the products they used back then. Now adays there are soooooo many products out there.

[Olivia]

This would be a pretty cool from the perspective of being a social scientist and amateur anthropologist. I wonder if you could get a sense from the adverts of the changing values that defined beauty over the period of the Revlon documents that you archived..!.

[Kevin Megan]

can't imagine in the past what fashion looks like

[Tiffany Draut]

The Archives Center is amazing! :)

[Mara Jonas]

It must be especially interesting to see how the concept of beauty has evolved over the years. I would love to see a temporary exhibition exploring the ever-changing concept of what it means to be beautiful at the American History Museum when it reopens.

[Mary Ellen MacArthur]

Reading about the task of collecting old Revlon cosmetic ads brought me vividly back to the large-format, glossy women's magazines of my youth. My mother's favorite was the Ladies' Home Journal, and mine was Seventeen Magazine. Both, as I recall, always had striking full-page advertisements for Revlon lipstick and nail color featuring impossibly gorgeous women! I'll never forget the impact of their advertising campaign for "Fire and Ice," a shade of bright red that stayed on the market for years. In those pre-television years, those ads shaped my concept of feminine glamour.